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Regina tapped her fingers on the table, waiting for the others. They had agreed to meet at Granny's at 8:00 that morning. It was now—she checked her watch—8:02. Her anxiety revved up. Why were they late? She had specially said 8:00, not 8:02. Where were they? Did they get into a car accident? Were they okay? Were they dead? Where could they possibly—?

Her head snapped up as the bell jingled. A curly head poked its way through.

Regina's heart sped up; her lungs closed; the blood drained from her face. Graham. It was Graham, walking casually into the diner, as if he had not just waltzed back into their lives two days ago. As if he'd never been dead. As if she'd never killed him.

Not that anyone knew that.

As far as everyone else knew, Graham had died of sudden heart complications. Which technically he had—it was just that the complications in question were Regina's hand and the fact that she was crushing it to dust.

No one really had to know about that, right?

There was still the awkwardness of their… romantic entanglement. Regina grimaced, hiding her face with one hand as he passed by her on his way to the little corner table. In her defense, she had been very lonely for a long time, stuck in a loveless marriage, dealing with an insipid, pain-in-the-ass little kid, and it couldn't have been all that bad for him—Robin never complained.

"Morning, Ruby," Graham called out, settling with his newspaper. Regina rolled her eyes at the enthusiastic, "Hi!". Ruby's schoolgirl crush had always been pathetically obvious, but now she wasn't even bothering to hide it.

She heard footsteps coming down the stairs from the back, where the inn connected to the diner. Hook and Neal, she thought, feeling something plummet in her stomach. She still couldn't swallow the fact that Neal was her brother.

"Morning, gentleman," she said pleasantly as they came into view.

"Regina," Neal said in the same carefully polite tone, inclining his head. Hook didn't say anything; he just yanked a chair out and dropped onto it, glaring at the table. Regina raised her eyebrows: he was still wearing that stupid tie loosely around his neck; his hair was all disheveled, sticking out all different directions; his normal "scruffy chic" had been replaced by a "I-honestly-don't-give-a-fuck-whether-or-not-I-shave chic"; and there were circles under his eyes, which looked even worse as his (ridiculous) eyeliner was all smudged.

"My God, you look terrible," Regina breathed.

"Stop flirting with me, Regina, I'm not in the mood," he growled, pulling a menu toward him. "Who're we waiting for, anyway?"

"David, Snow, and…" Regina trailed off, seeing Neal's darkening face. "And some other people."

"How's Henry?" Neal asked, partly to change the subject.

"Hmph," was all she could manage.

She was beyond furious with that kid. The morning after the party, she had sat him down and forced him to divulge every last detail of everything even remotely related to the Graham situation. Henry had stolen from her; lied to her; kept things from her knowingly and continuously for over a month; and worse, he had roped Dr. Whale into it!

And the worst thing was that she wasn't even really that angry with him.

She should have been. She should have been seething mad, crazy mad, like Carrie-White-psychopath-religious-fanatic-mother-mad! But ever since Henry had told her that he'd managed to bring Graham back from the dead with the well, Regina had been thinking: if he could bring back Graham… could he bring back others?

"Hey, guys," Ruby said brightly, coming over with the coffee pot. "Can I get you some—?"

She broke off, staring at the extremely disheveled Hook scowling at the menu.

"Holy shit," she breathed, her eyes widening. "What happened to you?"

"Oh, nothing much," Hook said coolly, not looking at her as he pretended to flip through the menu. "Just had my heart ripped out and shattered into a million pieces, that's all. But thanks for asking, darling. Much appreciated." He flashed her a sarcastic smile, which faded into a grimace soon after. "Run along, now."

"Actually, I'd like some coffee," Neal said hopefully.

"Neal!" Hook muttered furiously.

"Coming up," Ruby said, plastering a smile on her face. "Regina?"

"Coffee. Please hurry, try not to get distracted by any shiny objects."

Ruby's smile twitched, but she merely nodded and turned away to get their cups. Hook hit Neal in the shoulder with back of his hand, looking betrayed.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?"

"Ow," Neal said in an annoyed tone, rubbing his shoulder. He shot a glare at Hook, and hit him back. "Jerk."

Hook made an indignant noise, and thwacked him back. "Git."

Hit. "Asshole."

Hit. "Wanker."

Hit. "Dickhead."

Hit. "Asshat."

Neal paused, staring at him disbelievingly. "Did you just call me an 'asshat'?"

Hook frowned. "What?"

"You just called him an asshat," Regina said, pointing at him. Hook looked between the two of them for a minute, then scoffed.

"No, I didn't."

"Yeah, you did," Neal said, looking concerned. "Dude, you're talking like Ruby."

"No, I'm not," Hook said through clenched teeth.

"Yes, you are," Regina chuckled, thoroughly amused by this turn of events.

Hook opened his mouth to argue, but that was when Ruby chose to reappear with their drinks, setting the two cups down in front of Neal and Regina. She hovered, looking at Hook hesitantly.

"You sure you don't want anything?"

"How about a drink?" he growled, glaring at the table. Ruby raised her eyebrows.

"A drink? Now?"

"Yes, now!" he snapped. "Why, is there a problem?"

"It's 8:00 in the morning!"

"8:04, actually," Regina said quietly.

Hook whirled around in his seat, glaring at Ruby enough to make her take a step back. "I'm a grown man, Ruby Lucas," he snarled. "I do what I want, when I want, because I want to. So if I want a drink at 8:00 in the morning, I can bloody well have a drink at 8:00 in the morning. You know why?" He didn't wait for her to answer. "Because I want to!"

Ruby slit her eyes icily. "Fine," she spat venomously. "I'll get you your stupid drink—asshat." She stalked away, muttering in a clearly audible voice, "Fucking alcoholic bastard."

"I AM NOT AN ALCOHOLIC!" Hook roared, standing up and knocking his chair back.

"Will you shut up?" Regina hissed as Neal picked up his chair and gently tugged him back down. "People are staring!"

"They're only staring because of the way that skirt fits you, love," he said, glowering at the salt shaker. Neal closed his eyes, pinching his forefingers to the bridge of his nose.

"Can you not hit on her in front of me?" he said through clenched teeth. "Please?"

Hook chose to respond by burying his head in his arms and muttering darkly in a muffled voice. Neal and Regina exchanged a tired glance, sighing. He was such a child.

The bell tinkled again, and David walked in, followed closely by Snow and Emma. Regina flicked her eyes at Neal, who suddenly became fascinated with the menu, before smiling politely and waving them over.

"Hey, guys," David said cheerfully, pulling some chairs up. He raised his eyebrows as Ruby slammed a drink in front of Hook and stalked away. "Early to be drinking, isn't it?"

"Shut up, David," Hook muttered into his glass.

"Someone didn't get their beauty sleep last night," Snow smirked.

"Okay," Regina said quickly, before Hook could retort. "Let's all recognize that there a lot of jokes to be made here, and just tuck them away for a later time, because I have something far more important to say." She paused. "And also, I would like to point out that he looks like he was violated by a homeless drag queen."

"Damn you, Regina," Hook said over everyone snorting.

Ruby came back, setting down another three cups and offering coffee, pointedly ignoring Hook. Snow gave her a tentative smile, which she also ignored.

"Still fighting, then?" Emma asked sympathetically once Ruby left. Snow sighed, not answering. Regina exhaled impatiently.

"Yes, it's all very sad," she said, raising her eyes to the ceiling. "But also quite boring, so I'm just going to go ahead and start talking…"

She trailed off, seeing Emma turn her head, smiling in the other direction. Regina's eyes narrowed as Emma flirted with Graham across the room, giggling silently and mouthing things. Neal frowned thoughtfully at his knife, picking it up and twirling it experimentally through his fingers. Regina clenched her teeth, tapping her nails against the table as she waited for Emma to finish tossing her hair and waving.

"I'm sorry, Miss Swan, are we disrupting you?"she said finally. Emma snapped her head back, eyes wide.

"Oh! Right, sorry," she muttered, sinking back into her seat. Snow twisted in her seat to see who Emma had been "talking" to, turning back with raised eyebrows.

"Something you want to tell me?"

"What, that?" Emma shrugged, smiling foolishly. "It's nothing. He's going to be working at the station again, so I just—"

"Excuse me?" Hook said angrily, whipping his head toward Emma. "He's working at the station?"

Emma's smile soured. "Yes," she said irritably, and folded her arms. "So what?"

Hook scoffed, an incredulous smile on his face. "But…I work at the station."

"Yeah?"

"And—" Hook jutted his thumb at Neal—"Neal works at the station."

Emma raised her eyebrows coolly.

Hook laughed humorlessly. "You're joking, right? This is just some more of your sick, twisted sense of humor, right?"

"Why would this be a joke?" Emma frowned. "He's a sheriff, isn't he?"

"That's right," Neal said patronizingly. "He's Sheriff Graham. And some nights—he's a fireman." He smiled at Emma's narrowing eyes. "Or he can be Police Officer Graham or Pilot Graham or Navy Graham—"

"What are you implying?" Emma said icily. Neal shrugged.

"I'm not implying anything," he said pleasantly. "I'm sure male prostitution is a noble profession, in its own way."

"He's not a prostitute," Emma snapped. "Just because he happens to be a—"

"Prostitute," Hook insisted in a sing-song voice.

"He is not!"

"I WAS TALKING!" Regina shouted.

The diner fell silent. Everyone turned their heads to look at her with wide eyes. Fixing a disinterested expression on her face, Regina carefully smoothed her hair, and took a delicate sip of her coffee. Slowly, the diner returned to its overlapping conversations, though no one at Regina's table dared say a word without her permission.

"Now, then," she said calmly. "As I explained last night, Henry thinks it was the well that brought Graham back, because it's connected to Lake Nostos—I'm sorry, did I say something funny?" she interrupted herself as Emma and Hook snorted into their cups.

"No, it's…" Emma closed her eyes, still smiling as she shook her head. "Nothing. Keep going."

"Hmm," Regina said, pursing her lips disapprovingly. "If you two can't behave yourselves, I shall be forced to unleash my wrath upon your miserable souls." She took another careful sip, and dabbed her mouth daintily with her napkin. "Anyway, Henry managed to bring one person back from the dead, and I asked him, and he thinks he could do it again. So…"

"Oh, Regina," Snow breathed, looking at her worriedly. "You want to bring back…her?"

"Yes," Regina said flatly, staring her dead in the eyes. "I want Henry to bring back my mother."